The common cold and allergies with their associated weeping eyes and runny noses are a bane to mankind. In addition to the difficulties in breathing, seeing, talking, and disposing of nasal discharge, an individual afflicted with these disorders frequently must contend with a nose and areas surrounding it which are sore and irritated and which are, frequently, red and inflamed thereby calling the attention of others to his plight. The irritation and inflammation-the redness-can have several causes. A prime one is, of course, the sheer necessity of frequently blowing the nose into a tissue or cloth and wiping nasal discharge from the nose and the area surrounding it. The degree of irritation and inflammation caused by blowing and wiping is strongly related to the surface roughness of the implement used. The degree of irritation and inflammation is also strongly related strongly related to the number of times the nose and its surrounding areas must be contacted with an implement; the use of an implement which is relatively weak or relatively nonabsorbent will require a greater number of contacts with the face weak or relatively nonabsorbent will require a greater number of contacts with the face than will the use of a stronger or more absorbent implement which is able to contain a greater quantity of nasal discharge.
There have been numerous previous attempts to correct the problem of irritation and inflammation caused by blowing and wiping. One common approach has been to provide an implement which is smoother, softer, or both smoother and softer than previous implements. In modern industrialized societies, that implement is frequently a tissue paper product usually referred to as a facial tissue. Examples of such tissue paper products are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,981 which was issued to Carstens on Nov. 17, 1981 and in the various patents discussed in its specification.
The art has also attempted to address the problem of irritation and inflammation caused by blowing and wiping by softening tissue products used therefor with chemical additives. Freimark et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,755,220 issued Aug. 28, 1973 mention that certain chemical additives known as debonding agents interfere with the natural fiber-to-fiber bonding that occurs during sheet formation in papermaking processes. This reduction in bonding leads to a softer, or less harsh, sheet of paper. Freimark et al. go on to teach the use of wet strength resins to enhance the wet strength of the sheet in conjunction with the use of debonding agents to off-set undesirable effects of the wet strength resin. These debonding agents do reduce dry tensile strength, but there is also generally a reduction in wet tensile strength. Shaw, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,821,068, issued Jun. 28, 1974, also teaches that chemical debonders can be used to reduce the stiffness, and thus enhance the softness, of a tissue paper web. Chemical debonding agents have been disclosed in various references such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,554,862, issued to Hervey et al. on Jan. 12, 1971. U S. Pat. No. 5,264,082, issued to Phan and Trokhan on Nov. 23, 1993 describes compositions that have found broad use in the industry especially when it is desired to reduce the strength which would otherwise be present in the paper and when the papermaking process. Exemplary chemical debonding agents include quaternary ammonium salts such as trimethylcocoammonium chloride, trimethyloleylammonium chloride, dimethyldi(hydrogenated-tallow)ammonium methyl sulfate and trimethylstearylammonium chloride. Mono or diester variations of the before mentioned quaternary ammonium salts are also disclosed.
Armak Company, of Chicago, Ill., in their bulletin 76-17 (1977) disclose that the use of dimethyldi(hydrogenated-tallow)ammonium chloride in combination with fatty acid esters of polyoxyethylene glycols may impart both softness and absorbency to tissue paper webs.
Other workers have applied emollients, salves, cleansing agents, and the like to substrates such as tissue paper in an attempt not only to enhance the cleaning of the skin but also to reduce irritation and inflammation either through the lubricity of the substance applied to the implement or through the therapeutic action of the substance. This approach has been applied by, for example, Dake, et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,167 issued Sep. 5, 1978 particularly in regard to toilet tissues. It has also been followed by Buchalter in U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,807 issued Jul. 29, 1975 and by Weiss et al in U.S. Pat. No. 3,814,096 issued Jun. 4, 1974. Lavash, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,051, issued Apr. 23, 1985 describes a tissue substrate carrying an emollient which has enjoyed particular commercial success when used in the context of a facial tissue. U.S. Pat. No. 5,525,345, issued to Warner, et al. on Jun. 11, 1996 describes additional lotion compositions and means of applying such lotions. Other lotion compositions are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,650,218, issued to Krzysik, et al. on Jul. 22, 1997.
Despite the efforts of numerous researchers, the problem of the red, sore nose of the cold or allergy sufferer has not yet been completely resolved so improvements to such tissue products continue to be desired. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tissue paper product which causes less irritation and inflammation to a user's skin. It is a further object of this invention to provide a tissue paper product which will serve as a source of emollient, salve, or the like for application to the skin. It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide lotion-treated tissue paper products that are particularly efficient in transferring the lotion to a user's skin.
These and other objects are obtained using the present invention, as will become readily apparent from a reading of the following disclosure.